Whitehorse City Council once again came top of its class in the State Government’s Local Government Community Satisfaction Survey 2010.
Council received top marks, recording the highest result for overall performance against other inner metropolitan councils participating in the survey.
In addition to its own research, Whitehorse City Council participates in community satisfaction surveys coordinated by the Department of Planning and Community Development.
This statewide survey, conducted by Wallis Consulting Group, has been held annually for 13 years, with Whitehorse participating in each of these surveys.
Data was collected through 350 phone interviews, with a random sample of telephone numbers from postcodes in the Whitehorse area selected.
Questions related to two broad areas – governance and service delivery in nine key areas – with respondents asked to rate Council’s performance on a five point scale from ‘excellent’ to ‘needs improvement’.
These then provided an indexed score ranging from a minimum of 20 to a maximum of 100.
Whitehorse achieved an indexed mean of 71 for Council’s overall performance and an indexed mean of 68 for advocacy and community representation on key local issues – the highest results of all inner metropolitan councils.
Whitehorse was also above the median result for other inner metropolitan councils when it came to engagement in decision making on key local issues (indexed mean of 64); and interaction and responsiveness in dealing with the public (indexed mean of 76).
Whitehorse scored highly for overall performance in key service areas and responsibilities, with an indexed mean of 69.
Key results for Council in nine service areas were all above the median results for inner metropolitan councils, with Whitehorse scoring the highest result in the areas of recreation facilities (indexed mean of 78) and town planning policy and planning approvals (indexed mean of 61).
